Mangold says losing weight will benefit her weightlifting career

11:07 AM,
Oct. 15, 2013

Written by

Kelly Whiteside
USA TODAY Sports

When Olympic weightlifter Holley Mangold got the call about competing on the 15th season of The Biggest Loser, which premiers tonight on NBC, her coach Mark Cannella had one thought.

"No," he said. Mangold had the Pan American Championships and the World University Games coming up and simply qualifying for those events was significant, given Mangold was coming off major wrist surgery.

She managed to convince Cannella the show would help her weightlifting career. "It would be a great platform, not only to help me lose weight and get down to the weight I need to be to be the best weightlifter I can ...